Many beds include tall frames, thick mattresses and/or box springs, built-in drawers or other storage space located underneath the sleeping area, or some combination of these features. Additionally, it is common to mount a bed frame on bed risers to increase the storage space available underneath a bed frame. While all of these adaptations increase the comfort and/or convenience provided by a bed, they also tend to increase the level of the sleeping surface (generally referred to herein as the top surface of a mattress) above the floor surface on which the bed is supported. As a result, the bed may be too tall for its human user to readily sit down on the mattress from a standing position on the floor, and/or it may be too tall for a pet to readily climb onto the mattress from the floor. Thus, bed step devices exist, providing one or more steps for the human or pet to climb to a position from which the human may comfortably sit down onto the mattress or the pet may readily climb onto the mattress. Human bed step devices and pet bed step devices are analogous in purpose and function, with a practical difference being that human bed step devices typically do not need to be nearly as tall as pet bed step devices. This is not only because an adult human user, with rare exceptions, is taller than any common breed of pet, but also because the upright stature of humans enables us to readily shift our whole body onto a surface by first sitting onto the surface and then scooting backward or twisting while swinging our legs up. This process only requires raising our hips above the level of the top of the mattress, whereas our four-legged companions can only comfortably reach the mattress by stepping onto it with all four paws, which requires first raising their paws to a level from which it is comfortable for them to step or jump onto the mattress.
In either type of bed step device, human or animal, sliding movement of the device on a floor surface, whether due to a transfer of horizontal momentum from a human or pet stepping onto the device or any incidental bumping of the device that occurs during or just before the ascent of the human or animal onto the device, may cause the human or animal to lose his or her balance and potentially to fall and sustain injury. Thus, it is important for safety, in addition to convenience, that the device remain stationary during and preceding a human's or pet's use of the device to climb into a bed.
Additionally, bed step devices occupy a significant amount of space. This is especially true of pet step devices, because, being generally taller, they also must be generally longer to avoid being too steep for a pet to climb. Thus, it is desirable for a bed step device to incorporate storage space to offset the floor space occupied by the device.
A need therefore exists for an improved bed step device adapted to remain stationary when a user (for purposes of the present description, “user” shall refer generically to a human or other animal user) climbs onto the device and from the device onto a bed, and incorporating storage space.